Brent Christopher

President, Children’s Medical Center Foundation

As president of Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Brent Christopher leads the team focused on fundraising in support of Children’s Health and its components: Children’s Medical Center Dallas and Plano, eight specialty centers, multiple Children’s Health Pediatric Group primary care practices, Our Children’s House specialty hospital and rehabilitation facilities, home health, physician services and the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern.

Brent joined Children’s Health in July 2016 after 11 years of service as president and chief executive officer of Communities Foundation of Texas, one of the largest community foundations in the country. He guided the foundation through unprecedented growth of its impact for good in the lives of people across the North Texas region and beyond, with its base of assets increasing from $647 million to $1.1 billion. In 2009, he led the creation of North Texas Giving Day, the nation’s largest single day of community-wide giving which has helped to encourage the growth of online giving days across the U.S.

Prior to joining Communities Foundation of Texas, Brent served as director of development for the giving programs at Children’s Health during its successful wePromise Campaign. Before his first post with Children’s Health, he served as general counsel and vice president for advancement at Dallas Baptist University. Earlier in his professional career, Brent practiced law with Cowles & Thompson, P.C., in Dallas, where he specialized in legal malpractice defense and product liability defense.

Brent serves on the board of trustees for Austin College. He recently completed a three-year term as chair of the advisory board of CF Insights, a national initiative supported by Foundation Center to gather, analyze and share data with community foundations to improve their performance and sustainability. He formerly served on the board of directors for Philanthropy Southwest, the regional association of grantmakers. Brent also served as a national strategy committee member of the Alliance for Charitable Reform, which educates policymakers about the role of philanthropy in communities across the country.

In other volunteer roles, Brent is a member of the Junior League of Dallas Community Advisory Board, the Advisory Council of CNM Connect, the Safer Dallas Better Dallas Steering Committee, and the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development Executive Board at Southern Methodist University. He is a member of the Leadership Council for Commit!, a public-private partnership for driving student achievement from cradle to career across Dallas County. Brent also is an active member of the YPO Gold Dallas chapter, Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, and The Dallas Assembly, for which he served as president in 2010-11.

Brent earned his law degree from The University of Texas School of Law. Previously, he earned his master’s degree in political economy and political culture at the University of Nottingham in England, and his B.B.A. in public administration and economics from Baylor University.